Al Jazira By Design Utilising Black & White Cinematography

March 27, 2026

March 12, 2026

Visual storytelling thrives on bold choices, and there are few bolder than black-and-white cinematography.

Looking back on ‘By Design’, a commercial video for Al Jazira Sports & Cultural Club and produced by 815 STUDIOS promoting the 2023-2024 home and away kits, we can see how this cinematic approach was cleverly employed to create tension and intrigue, while also serving as a useful tool to tease and showcase the latest jerseys.

The overall video was conceptualised with one primary goal in mind: How can we make the reveal of these kits super impactful and something that will last in the minds of viewers?

In a world where we, as viewers, expect colour, filming in black and white captures the audience’s attention almost instantly. We take advantage of this absence of hue, which denies us the complete visual impact of the kits, giving us instead their shape, texture, and detail. That’s when we realised this should be at the heart of the concept. This deliberate decision to showcase a monochrome palette strips away the glamour and gloss, exposing a raw, unvarnished reality of the club. It builds suspense until the pivotal moment when the players emerge from the darkness into colour, showcasing the kits in their full glory. A reveal that delivers not only a visual punch, but also an emotional one, turning the kit unveiling into a spectacle people will remember.

Working within a black-and-white palette requires more attention to detail when it comes to contrast. Contrasting elements create visual drama and ensure the black-and-white aesthetic feels both intentional and impactful. Unlike colour cinematography, where hues and tones add depth and interest, black-and-white filmmaking relies on the interplay of light and shadow to achieve the same effect. Understanding these fundamentals of black-and-white photography is a great starting point for preparing for such a shoot.

While on the location recce, it was important to assess which locations would require lighting fixtures to fully create the desired contrast, and which locations would require utilising the natural light or fixed practical fixtures. Within the areas where we would capture alongside natural elements we had to work around their already set exposures to craft something with greater contrast and dynamism. For example, when inspecting the night exterior on the football pitch, we discovered that using the stadium’s floodlights would present challenges due to their limitations in directing illumination on the talent. This was far from ideal for achieving the required contrast within a black-and-white frame. However, armed with this knowledge of the environment, we were able to plan in advance around the existing light exposure and direction and come prepared with the correct equipment to craft the desired look.

In this scene, we filmed toward the floodlights, capturing amazing specular highlights. Utilising lighting units within the frame is an excellent way to add brilliant visual interest and heighten contrast levels for blacks & white imagery. For other locations within the stadium that either lacked visual appeal or involved small set builds on-site, we incorporated practical fluorescent lighting fixtures into the frames. These not only enhanced the sense of reality within our small sets but also made the colourless images more dynamic and interesting.

To achieve the desired look, specific LUTs (Look-Up Tables) were developed for production. We captured pre-visual test footage on location to help plan light placement, implement shafts of light, and block scenes. This also allowed us to create specific LUTs for the monochromatic visuals. Using this footage, we developed three LUTs: two for the black-and-white segments and one for the final scene where the players step out into colour. These LUTs were crucial for on-set production, enabling us to view the final black-and-white images in real-time, and pivotal for the colour shots.

The final reveal involved players stepping from complete darkness into light, symbolising the transition into colour. Working with a higher contrast LUT as a reference made it easier to light the scene effectively, keeping the players hidden in darkness before their reveal. The LUT’s ability to reduce ambient light levels in the shadows allowed us to achieve better light ratios, even within the confined space where ambient control was challenging. This LUT also helped balance the shadows, ensuring they were clean rather than noisy across the whole picture.

Creating those bold black-and-white visuals and conceptualising the dramatic kit reveal was truly exciting especially since it allowed us to build on past Al Jazira kit unveilings. Each time, the challenge is to find a fresh angle, and this project was no exception. There’s something special about working with black & white monochromatic visuals in general, but alongside the emotional impact of a colour transition really brought it in to its own.

I hope the Al Jazira fans enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to life.

Watch Al Jazira FC ‘By Design’ here.

Here are some behind-the-scenes images of our camera and lighting setups.